Introduction And Heather’s Story

SPEAKER_01 0:10

If you wondered how to manage your energy and time, this is the episode for you. I've got an absolute fabulous woman sitting across me. She is non-in this industry and she's laughing right now, was my introduction. Fabulous Heather Hutchins from Energy Architect. Hello, Heather. Hello, how are you today? Good, thank you. You and I go way back. Oh, we do, don't we? You were at the beginning of me building my business years ago with the baby on my lap. That's right. We do. Yeah. And I was fascinated by you and your energy and how much energy you have. So let's talk about this today with our listeners. Because a lot of people struggle these days, right? And at least now we're coming into spring and the sun is shining, it feels good. But I want to talk about the energy overall. And as we go through the seasons in life, how do we continue with that? But let's tap it back a little bit and tell our listeners who you are and what you do, please.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

So I am Heather Hutchings. I am known as the energy architect. I have been a business coach, I'm still a business coach for 28 years. About 10 years ago, when I realized that you can have all the energy in the world, but if you're not using it at the right time, then you get very tired and energy depleted. And so I started to move towards working with energy, working with what we call old trading rhythms, both in business and in personal life. And how do we have enough energy at the end of the day to be able to spend time with our family? And so that's what I do now, although I do strategic planning and implementation, most of it is based around energy, managing our energy. Time management is a myth.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

It's a core, right? Like if you're not harnessing the energy the right way, then you could go through your day like headless chicken, even if you have all the strategies in the world, but if you're not using the right energy in the right slots. And that's what I was always fascinated about, receiving your emails and LinkedIn newsletters and stuff like that. You talk a lot about how to manage that. So what was your background? Let's dive into who you are first. Who is Heather?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Who is Heather? Well, let's say I was born in Taranaki. I'm a Taranaki girl. I'm a Naki girl, love the Naki. And so grew up in Stratford and New Plymouth, but have always been involved in leadership. You know, I I did a timeline of every 10 years and what were the biggest uh things that I guess I did in that, you know, I'm 77 now. And it always came back at every decade, somewhere along the line, I was in leadership and leading with energy and doing what I do best. And so that's where I started. I started business coaching in 2000 and whatever. It was a long time ago. Um business is all I know. My husband has owned many businesses, and although I've never coached him because we don't work very well yet.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Uh I'm glad you recognize the strengths and weaknesses.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

And so uh yeah, so a bit of always business is what I know. Um I tried working in a bank like you did, but I only lasted a week because I was too busy trying to tell the bank manager how to run this business. So I thought it was time to go back to business coaching.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I love it. Yeah, absolutely love it. So when did you discover that, hey, energy matters?

Why Time Management Fails

SPEAKER_01 3:26

You can you can have all the strategies in the world, 90-day planning and 12 months planning and five-year planning, but if you're not using the right energy the right way, when did you discover that?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

It was looking at the people I was coaching and they had everything in place, but they were exhausted, they were tired, and I knew and I knew then that something wasn't right. And also for myself, when I looked at my calendar, it was beautifully colour-coded, absolutely gorgeous, but there was no time for anything else. And so I knew that something had to change in the way I worked and the way my clients worked. And so, you know, I then started to investigate. I actually stepped outside of my business to investigate another way of working, discovered the old trade-in rhythms, and it just, it just it took over my life, took over my world. Get quite excited about it. And I realized there was another way of working.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Does everyone get the same sort of energy, or do you find through working with people everyone has different levels of energies?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Everybody has different levels of energy. Your your energy is like your own personal fingerprint. And so you will notice it within your family, you'll notice it with your children, I notice it with my husband and my family. We our energy is at the highest peak at different times of the day. So we don't, you know, we were brought up flatlining. If you think about when you first started work, we were told that we worked from nine to five and that was it. When in fact we don't, our energy doesn't flatline. It peaks and it dips and it peaks and it dips. And that's our energy working. Now you know when you're tired, and yet we push through. So that's your energy, your body saying, Hey, I need a break, your brain saying, Hey, I need a break. And so you need to learn to recognise that. Now I'm a morning person, my husband's a night person, he'll be up till two, three o'clock in the morning. Whereas I'm I'm I'm over and done with my hub as three. You know, I close the opposite hub as three. So it's understanding your energy, what worked best, when do you do your peak work, when do you take those steps, it's listening to your body, not looking at the clock, not looking at your diary. You know, you your diary tells you what you need to do, your energy tells you when you need to do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

It's interesting, right? Because a lot of people do work nine to five. So if we just go sightlines a little bit here, for those that are working nine to five, how can they work better and manage those highs and lows without affecting their work too much, but also, you know, they can't do much about it. They have to bet work nine to five.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

So you're actually more productive if you work with your energy, you know. So some people they need to understand, and you do that by what I by have what I call an energy diary, and it's actually understanding are they better in the morning? Are they better in the afternoon? Are they better at night? And then it's prioritizing your work, your your highest work, the the work that needs your fullest attention during your peak energy hours. And so it is around for me, it is around educating a lot of our company managers, our CEs to understand how they work. And then we work out how does your team work? You know, what are their energy levels? And there are times, yes, there are times when we have to do the work, we have no option, but and we fit those into our day, but we make sure we also take the breaks at those times. But we need to be putting time aside each day for us to do our high energy work.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I love that because I remember reading in one of your newsletters is the task that you must dread or don't like or really, you know, takes so much of your mental power. Do them at your highest. Don't leave them at the lowest. And a lot of people leave them, right? You don't want to do that. So you're like, oh, I'll get to that when I when I get to that. But attacking it at your highest gives you that opportunity to be at your best performance.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

That's right, because you've you've got the energy to deal with whatever it is that that job that you keep putting off. That's energy distraction, actually, that's energy depletion. You know, when you you think about think about the things that actually deplete your energy, and some of those tasks you're talking about will deplete your energy. Tasks deplete your energy, people deplete your energy. You know, those phone calls and you get we need to answer that right now. But you know, putting work off depletes your energy. So we need to understand what depletes our energy and then work with it during our high peak times. Um so you're right, you know, there are tasks like you know, and you get sidetracked. I have you and I talked as I was coming in about being sidetracked online. You know, you set off to do one thing and all of a sudden social media takes over your world or emails took over takes over your world. So for me, why would I do that during my high peak time?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

You know, it's just so we talked about what drains the energies, right? What can give people energy? Any tips there?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Well, first of all, you need to understand your energy, you know, and so if if reading a book you know gives you the energy for half an hour, do that. If you're going for a run, oh dear, I don't like running very much. Um, or going to the gym. So it's all those things that empowers you inside you and your brain will give you your energy back. So listen to your body. Really listen to your body. Our brains uh I I have a saying, you know, it's put your phone away. You don't need it because your phone will distract you, your computer will distract you. That depletes your energy. Put them away and you'll find start finding their energy will come back. You know, look at your sleep, look at your eating habits, all of those things will help you. Drinking water. Drinking water, drinking water, two or three litres a day. Super important. Yeah, super important. Will help you manage your energy, get your energy back, and doing things that you want. So if we work with our energy during the day, if we're in in a job, then we have time after work to spend with family and friends doing what we want to do for ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

It's funny, you're right. Like first step, I think, is really understanding who you are as a person. Don't compare yourself to someone else, if that's the summary so far that I'm drawing. Yes, yeah. Right? Because everyone is different. You could be a morning bird, your partner could be a night owl, and you can't force that person to do what you're doing, and vice versa. That's right. You've got to be aligned, you know, you don't have to be aligned to work with things. And I think once you understand that, then you can go, okay, this is what drains me, this is what depletes me, and this is what energizes me. And it's all different for everyone. Like, for instance, when I go for a massage, what does massage do to you? Does that relax you or does that energize you?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

It energizes me. Same. Yeah, we're we're crazy. Yeah, it's no good me going, I'll go and have a relaxing massage because I know that yeah, I'll get up and I'm I'm on fire. You know, interesting. On fire going, okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

So yeah, so really we're made from the same sort of dough, aren't we? Uh yeah. But there is a lot of people that go for massage to relax, yeah, to feel better about you know, whatever's going on in the world, and and then go to sleep. And it's all nice and calm. I've discovered I cannot do massages before sleep because it it gives me so much energy. It opens up all my chakras and energy levels so much that I'm buzzing.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yes, yeah. And so, you know, that's you acknowledge that, you know that your fingerprint is different to everybody else's, and you work with what you have. It's it's no good pushing through. Now we've all worked with people who come to work in the morning at eight o'clock and they wander around and they have a coffee and they annoy you, and you're going, what are they doing? Why aren't they working? But they're they're afternoon or night people where I'm a morning person, you know, so we have to understand how different people work. And sure there are tasks that we have to do. But if you're having a meeting in the morning, um there are people who don't want to be there. So only have a meeting for 20 minutes, you know, and then take a break, walk away. If you're on a webinar, if you're running a webinar, take a break, you know, don't run the webinar for an hour and a half and expect people to listen to you because I, for one, I'll be sound asleep on the table. Yeah. You know, it's all those things. So it's understanding, energy, and and how best to use it. Not just for you, but for people around you. For people around you.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

I love that.

Boundaries For Busy Businesswomen

SPEAKER_01 11:42

So we talked about the people that I work for businesses. Let's talk about self-employed people because a lot of your clientele are business women. Yes. Yes, I only work with women. You only work with women, okay. Uh glad I'm a woman. You can work as man. Because I was sitting here going, I need a session with you. Okay, so business women. Tell me more about them. What have you seen so far in working with Stan? The patterns.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah. So I guess it was the the woman that actually sent me down this way of working with your energy. If you think about it, we wear more than one hat. So we are a solopreneur, we're a businesswoman. A lot of us are mums, a lot of us have, you know, we race home after work and we cook the dinner, we do the ironing or whatever we do. And that's, and although most women that I work with, in fact, all the women I work with are very high performing, they're exhausted by the end of the day. You know, they're very successful in the businesses, like you are, but by the end of the day, we're drained, we're absolutely drained. Because we're trying to do everything. And sometimes, as you and I know, we have to sit back and go, no. Just say no. No, I I say to my clients, no is a sentence. Um, and so as a as a solopreneur, understand your energy, work with it. Remember, you will have those the highs, that's when you get your main work done. When you have a dip, step aside, step away from the computer, go for a walk, read a book for about 20 minutes. Give your body time to rest and recharge your phone. So why we don't why don't we recharge our bodies and give it a break? We don't. We just expect us, because it's the way we've been put up, to go all day and push through. And it's when those women were pushing through that they were making the mistakes.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

So by stepping away from their work and doing just going out for a walk in the sun for 10, 15 minutes, it's all it requires for your body and your brain to go, okay, I can go back to work now.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Absolutely. And this is why I think one of the reasons why I got a dog, because the dog forces me to go for a walk. And and yeah, I mean, it's so easy to get stuck behind a screen trying to solve problems. You're constantly available, you're constantly on the phone. And and then you wonder by the time the evening comes that you have nothing left in your reserves for the people you're actually working for. Like I look at my family and I'm going, this is the reason why I'm doing all of this. That's right. But then if I don't have the energy to spend time with them, what's the point of all of this? So, yeah, so rearranging those things and making sure that you still have enough in you to keep going. To keep going.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

And and and it's the same, you know, you you m you said that you're constantly on demand. That's energy depletion, you know, because we all know that you give a busy a busy person a job and they'll get it done. But it takes you at least 10 minutes if someone interrupts you, will take you 10 minutes to stop thinking about what you were doing, focus over here, and then when you've answered the question or whatever it is they need from you, takes you another 10 minutes to come back to the task. And that's energy depletion. So you need to be really strong and say to people, you know, don't disturb me for this hour and a half. Some people work and peak it for an hour, some work for I work for 90 minutes before I need a break. But I've got clients who will work for an hour and then they need a break, they need to get up and walk away. So it's understanding your own rhythms because everybody's different.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

This podcast is very similar to the one I've done a week ago with Kristen one. Always struggle with names. But we were talking a lot about the brain and how the brain is wired and how it needs those breaks, how it needs to recharge because it just shuts off. And you need to, you know, go away, drink some water, have the breathing exercises, and then recharge yourself to come back to the task. So I love I love the correlation between those two podcasts. In terms of um people being too available these days, and that's the trouble we have, right? With the computers, with the phones, with everything, and the way people operate, like we're no longer nine to five. People expect service more than ever. Yes. What can you recommend for the businesswomen that already feel the pressure that they're probably not good enough, they need to try harder, they're serving everyone, and not feel rejected, you know, and not lose the business. Yeah. How can they say no in a way that doesn't cost them losing business?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah. They need to set boundaries and they need to be very clear around those boundaries. You know, I have a an auto-email-y thing, you know, if someone sends me an email, and if I'm in my high peak energy time, they get this email back straight straight back saying, Look, I'm sorry I'm not available, you know, I'm it's my high peak level time of working, I'll get back to you when I'm in the and I say so quite clearly. So it's setting boundaries around yourself. Because you know your energy, you've worked it out, you've done your energy diary, and just it's being very strong. It's hard because women don't like to say no. But if you want to protect your energy, if you want to protect your business, because by working with your energy you will be more productive and more profitable, then you need to set boundaries or delegate the work. You know, is it a $10 job or a $120 job? If you can, delegate the work. You can't be everything to everybody. So it's understanding your own boundaries and your own rhythms.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

I love that. Because a lot of the time on your signature, what always captured me was manage your energy, not your time. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

And I love that. I absolutely love that because you can manage the time until the cows come home. But if you're doing something that you hate, and the times when you're just not feeling it, more mistakes will happen. That's right. You know, people around you are not going to be happy, which leads me to the next question, really, is the unmanaged energy with leaders, how does that affect people around them?

Leading Teams With Energy Awareness

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Like if they don't know how to manage their own energy.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

What happens to their teams? Yeah, so the the team follows them, actually. So if they're not managing their energy or if they're working from nine to five flat line, the team think that's the way to work. Even though the team is struggling, their manager sets the parameters on how the team works. You know, and the the it the manager needs to understand the different levels of how his team works. But most managers will just go, go, go. So they need to stop and think, the team's following me. You know, look over my shoulder, they're all doing exactly what I'm doing. At the end of the day, you've got a very tired team, a very grumpy team, perhaps a team that fights a bit amongst themselves, but the manager sets the dynamics of the work environment.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

I loved it. One of the things I've been asking my staff lately is, well, for the last few years, is where do you work best? You know, is it morning, is it evening, is it afternoon? And um, and it's amazing because I've got this young girl, she's in Christchurch, she's my PA, she's been with me for the last five years, and she hates mornings. She's not a morning person whatsoever. So we agreed that she'll be coming to work around 11:30, 12, because that's when she's at her highest, she's at the peak, she can work, but then she can work through until midnight. Yes, yeah, with the breaks, of course, you know. But she realized that for herself that me forcing her to come at nine o'clock in the morning is not gonna do anyone good because she just sits there and she looks dead.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

It doesn't take anything in and is not interested. There's no productivity, waste of time.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

So I figured out waste of time better for me to let her go and get her to have her naps and sleeps and whatever she does in the mornings. And then she comes comes in and she's awesome. And then I had other people in the team that are early birds and they love being at work at six or seven o'clock in the morning because there's no one interrupting them, no one's messaging them, you know, they can get through the emails, they can get through the documents, they can smash everything by nine o'clock, and then they're off to the gym and then they might come back later. Yes. So it's amazing when people understand themselves. In terms of energy diary, if we can circle that for a moment, how long s can someone should be, you know, tracking?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Tracking. Only needs a week. Okay. And you and you watch the rhythm. You know, some people will come to me and uh clients will say, I'm a morning person, and then when we've tracked their rhythm, for a week they go, actually, I'm not, am I? You know, so they might find that they actually don't kick into work until about 10 or 11 o'clock. But they are quite happy to work till three o'clock, take a break for about an hour and then they'll come back. Whereas I'm up at five and I will take a break at about eleven for about an hour, but then I'll come back and then I have the tiniest little dip till about you know and peak. And if I have past two, three o'clock, I'm going, I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

You're out of here. Yeah. Interesting, because I thought I was a morning person until I started going to the gym. And I've realized I cannot do gym in the morning, like heavy weights and stuff. I can't do that in the morning. First thing in the morning, does not work for me. I don't know how people do it at five o'clock in the morning, you know. For me, I've realized that I'm good with my brain in the morning. That works really well. Problem solving, you know, sitting down, clearing emails, dealing with difficult things. I can do that. But ask me to go to the gym and lift something heavy, I have nothing in me. It's amazing the the difference in energies again. Like you've got to understand your mental energy and physical energy.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yep. Whereas I go to the gym like you every other day and I have to go early in the morning because in the afternoon, the last thing I want to do is go and lift weights.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

So the body's going, no, no, no, I've had enough. Tristan. Yeah. And so the brain, it's not it's the brain, and it's and it's also the brain going, No, I need to rest. I need some time to rejuvenate, to rest, to, you know, go for a wall. Um I mean, I like knitting. And so I'll sit down and I might knit for half an hour, quite happily in a little world of my own. And then the body comes back again. Because it's it's focused on something that's actually not too hard to do.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

And so for me, in the morning, I'll go to the gym, I'll push the weights, don't need to think about it, other than you know, making sure that the form is I don't need to think about anything else. And I've got the energy at the lun it by afternoon, I'm going, no, the muscles don't want to work. They've had enough. The brain's just enough.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Versus, I'm the opposite. I feel like in the morning my brain is going, right, I need to work, I need to solve everyone's problems. And then at lunchtime, I might go, Actually, now I have energy for the body, my brain. It has had enough. It needs a break. And going in with you know lifting weights doesn't require much brain power from me. Well actually it does in a way because I have no idea what I'm doing. That's why I have a PC that tells me what to do, and I just sit there and I just do work. Yeah. Yeah. And again, like I think that because it removes that thinking from me, puts it on her, and then she tells me what to do, and I just do it. Yes. And I love it.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

And I get through that physically, and then I can come back, have shower, and then go, okay, now I'm ready to go again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

So you're working through your peaks and your dips, and you know, you've gone, okay. Uh so the gym for you is a dip. It's time out. You know, so you've gone through your peaks in the morning and solved everybody's problems, and I'm not too sure about solving everybody's problems. It's probably not a good idea. Um, but you've you've gone through your peaks, and the gym is the dip. And so I need time out. Yeah. And so you're working with that. Whereas some people don't get a chance to do that. I do work with a client in the Naki and his team, they actually have a room similar to this actually, where there's a count. If they want to go and have a lie down, they can because he realizes that it's no good asking them to push through. Yeah. Um, so they can just have a rest and and work their time.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Exactly. Exactly.

Parenting, Guilt, And Recovery Rituals

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Circling back to women for a moment, because I'm always thinking about from my own mum hat perspective, how do you deal with children, for instance, when because you can't just go, oh well, I'm tired, get away from my face. Like you still have to get up and look after them and do things for them. What small tips you can give to business women that you're dealing with that can still operate as good business owners but also be good parents.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Good parents. So it once again it's it's really understanding your energy. And as I said before, there are certain tasks that we have to do. They're not negotiable. And looking after our family is not negotiable. But if you can take time out to go and play ball with the kids, go down to the beach, which we can do here in Wank and I, take those times out to be with the family in the wintertime, play a board game. Take the time out where at the same time your body can relax, the children are happy, and then you can go back to work knowing that you know you've you've got the energy to go back to work. Everybody's comfortable because you've you've looked after yourself at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

How do you deal with guilt? Because I feel like a lot of business women I know, they're constantly on the go, right? And they'll be spending time as their kids feeling guilty that they're not working because that's what the society expects from them.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Key word, that's what the society expects from them. So, how do you change that mindset? I'm not a mindset coach, but it is a mindset issue. Um, and so it is about for me, because I've been there as well, it's I talked myself in going, well, no, you know, you're doing this for you so you can be a better mother, you can be a better businesswoman. So what is there a to feel guilty about? Or what is there about the imposter syndrome? Why do I, you know, it's just about it's a mindset issue. And it's it's all around, once again, understanding your mind, your brain, your body, your energy, and how we work. It's it's not easy. It's not easy. But yeah, if you've got a family and it's holidays, and how do you look after your children? It's in the holidays and you need to work. Make sure that when you spend that time with the children, it's quality time. And the children need to understand as well that there will be times of the day where mum has to go and work, um, but that's okay. She's going to spend some time with me later. You know, difficult for little ease, I know. Yeah, yeah. You can't just shut them in the car. You can't shut up.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Love it. Yeah. Look, yesterday I had a beautiful day with the kids. I uh send them off to the school holiday programme in the morning and I got my work done and things like that. And then as I was going to pick them up, I did something very naughty for the first time ever. It felt so naughty happen. Are you ready? Are you ready for the discovery? Or did you buy an ice cream? I did. I did. Before I went to pick them up, I went and I got myself ice cream. I never ever did this before. Because for me, it was always like, oh, you know, everything we do, we do it with the family, and I'll go and pick up the kids and then we'll go to the beach and we'll have an ice cream. And as I was driving, I looked at the clock and it was 2:30, and I didn't need to pick them up until three o'clock. And I thought, you know what? I had a bloody tough day today. I deserve an ice cream. And I stopped over in Paraparamu beach. There's a beautiful real ice cream. I went in there, I got the ice cream. The lady was super lovely. She even gave me a sprinkle of sherbet. Love that. And I just went to the beach and I just sat there for like five, ten minutes, and I just had my ice cream and I looked at the water and I looked at the sun and I just soaked it in and I felt so good.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Celebrating you. It's around celebrating you. That's what you probably without even realizing. Celebrating your day, celebrating your achievement.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

It was amazing. And then when I went to get the kids, I was so much happier when I went to the pickup. Because normally when I get to the pickup time, I'm I'm so drained from work, from stress, from everything. I'm I'm in a constant state of stress because there's so much going on out there, so many fires to put out, right? So I got to pick them up and I realized how much energy I had for them. And then I was like, cool, what do you guys want to do? And they're like, okay, we go to the beach. And because we agreed before they will go to the beach and build some sand castles. And I was like, that's cool. So I picked them up. We came home, grabbed some snacks, we went to the beach and we spent another two hours at the beach. And sitting there with my feet on the sand, I've and still working. I was working on my phone, but watching the kids because they didn't need me. They were like, no, mom, you just rest. Um I was just in charge of food, making sure other dogs don't need the food we had. It was just such a cool day. And I realized in that moment how much it matters to manage your energy for those around you.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Yes. Really important. Um, and and that's you know, you were talking about families. That's the best way to do it. Because at the same time, you're relaxing. Yeah. You know, you're enjoying the company of the family, they're having fun. And sure, you might be doing a little bit of work, but you're in a totally different environment. You know, environments can deplete your energy. We don't think about it. But some of the environments we work in can deplete our energy. And you're out in a totally different environment. So the body's going, yay, you know, I'm I'm out in the fresh air. Yeah, I love walking meetings. Yeah. The best meeting you can have is a walking meeting with your team.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

You know, and that's so that's using your energy, everybody's energy, and you'll get clarity, you'll get a whole different feedback from your team if you can have walking meetings. I mean, just love walking meetings. And then and the weather we're having at the moment, why not? Why not? Why why keep everybody inside?

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Now you will be more productive with a walking meeting than having a meeting around a table.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Absolutely. And I think the brain works in a different way because when you're walking, you're more relaxed and certain information may come out to life. Yes. Yes. That you wouldn't have got otherwise. But also perceiving that information, you will perceive it less aggressive or less attacky. Yes. You you may actually go, okay, I see. This is the problem.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

All right. How do we solve that? Yeah, how do we, and as a team, you solve the problem. Yeah. Not you solving the problem, it's the team solving the problem.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah, I love that. Absolutely love that. So yeah, last night we came home and then I had to run into my two meetings back to back. And but the kids were awesome. They were like, Cool, Mom, you know, we had such a good time with you. We don't need you now. And you can go to your meetings. And it was great.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Because you'd set the parameters. They knew you were going to the meetings. Yeah. So it was in their little heads. It's okay, Mum's not going to be here. She has meetings tonight. Yeah. You know, and and that's okay because we've had our time with her or we've we've had some fun. Yeah. So it's about setting those boundaries, setting the parameters for whoever. I mean, I I do it with with my family. They're growing up for sure with a granddaughter. But they know don't annoy Nani in the morning because that's her time to work. So when Molly comes to stay, she doesn't annoy me in the mor she's a teenager, she'll be asleep most of the time. I hope she's listening to this. It's getting crazy down in the South Island. But you know, and it's the same with with my husband, he'll say to me, Oh Lord, here we go, wrong time to be talking this through with you. Yeah. Yeah, because he knows my energy. I know his. Yeah. And so, and you know, the other thing, if you think about it, we only have 24 hours in a day.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

And how can we best use that? And so perhaps if I said to you we have 1,440 minutes in a day. And yet, you know, we don't work 24 hours. So if you're looking at eight hours a day, not a lot of minutes in a day that we have, like 480 or something, isn't it? And so we need to w work differently. You know, at play, at home, at work, we need to look and understand who we are and what's what's our

Designing Days Around Your Energy

SPEAKER_00 31:03

energy. How do we use it?

SPEAKER_01 31:06

I love, love, love the name of your business, the energy architect. When I think of architect, I think of someone that draws plans and builds something and makes it the way the other person needs it.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Is this what you do? Yeah. So I I started off it was a big debate with a cli- it was a client of mine that came up with it. You know, was that I actually design days so that people have they can still be very clear on what they want to do, they can be creative on what they want to do, but it's designing their day around them and their energy. And that's where the energy architect came from. It's all around design, if you think about it.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

It was an architect who came out with the name, actually.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

I love that because when you're able to sit down and do that with your clients, I think you're not only enhancing the life of that particular person, you're enhancing the lives of people around them. Because if that businesswoman is now operating at her highest peaks without feeling guilty, able to set boundaries and able to maximize her time and energy, then people around her will be happier.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

And that and that's what happens. I mean, I've got a client that you know that you've got this open plan working that we have these days. And she has on the back of her chair a peak and low. And so when she's at a peak energy, she takes away the word low. She's got peak, so people know. Don't annoy her right now, because this is her peak time. You know, and she's quite happy to wander and talk to you during the low energy time, because you know, that's that's the time that most of us should be. Low energies when you do your emails, you catch up on things that actually don't need a lot of your brain power. Um, but that when I walked in the office and just saw this peak sitting other shabba, here we go. What a great way to do it in an open plan office.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Yeah. Yeah. Because again, yeah, you're right. A lot of us are working now in an open plan office, and then we get dragged into people's conversations. Conversations and dramas and whatever's going on out there.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

That's right. And that's that's disturbing your energy. Yeah. You know, that's energy distraction. And it's it's a killer. It really is. It takes our energy all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

What can be words of wisdom that you could share that you've learned over the last so many years of working with people that you see the same common mistakes that people make that, you know, after listening to this podcast, if they can just change one thing in their life, what what can they do?

SPEAKER_00 33:37

I think probably the words have come from you around imposter syndrome, uh, the mindset feeling guilty. It is around understanding what does imposter syndrome mean and what why am I feeling guilty? It's acknowledging those things. Um and the words of wisdom is just for me, is really finding out what's causing it. Just it's just and I've been through it, I know what it's like. And for me, it was around my own mindset and my own energy, because I was doing the $20 jobs when I should have just been doing $120 jobs. And so I learned that one very quickly that actually no one's no one's watching. No one's listening. It doesn't matter. You know, we think everybody's watching us and everybody's listening to us. Actually, they're not. They're too busy in their own worlds. And so, yep, understand your body, understand your rhythms, understand your energy. Um, as I've said, your diary tells you what you need to do. Your energy will tell you when you need to do it. So follow the energy levels that you have, and and you'll be okay, you'll be fine. You'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

I'll understand.

Money Pressure And Energy Flow

SPEAKER_01 34:45

You will. When you talk about money and energy, because I'm all about money. Yes, right. Of course. I'm the money girl. I always talk about money in terms of people's traumas with money, people's background with money, and how is that affecting them now? And what I'm finding is a lot of the time people have no energy because they're also stuck in the money problem. Of course. And money can drain and weigh a lot on their mind. Yes, yes, absolute energy drain if you're not dealing with that issue. What are your thoughts on that? What have you seen with dealing with business women?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Yeah. So most of the time I'll say to a businesswoman, don't worry about the money. Worry about the job that you're doing, and the money will happen. It will flow in. So a lot of us get caught up in the I need to be doing so much per hour. I need to, this is my budget. I need to make sure that I meet budget daily. Or my team need to make sure that they meet budget. So money, money, money becomes a focus. So for me, it's not about focusing on the money. It's about focusing on what you do best, which is your business. Because if you focus on that, the money just happens. It will come through. So stop focusing on money, start focusing on what you're good at, which is your business. It might be customer service, it might be stats or whatever it is that you do, yeah. Focus on that. And you'll find the money will flow through.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

I love that. I absolutely love that because I feel like money is actually energy. It is. And it flows. And if you're trying to block it by overthinking about it or by stressing about it, money gets upset with you and just walks away. Yeah. Because it's like, well, you know, do you really want me here? You're stressing too much about me. So I might as well just walk to the side. In my career, what I've noticed as well since I've started this business, because this business started as a part-time gig and you know, around the yeah, yeah. Famous last words. Because I never focused on money, I never focused on how much am I bringing into the family household. My ex-husband at the time had a job. So we're like, cool, you're the main income owner. Whatever I earn, is it just a bonus to pay some of the extra bills? And I absolutely always focused on the client on front of me. And I think because I did that, like my business just doubled and quadrupled. And if I look back over the last eight and a half years of my business, I still pinch myself of how far it came. And if eight years ago, if you ask me, you know, how many deals you've got settling, how many clients you're dealing with, I had no idea at any given time. And it sounds terrible, but at the same time, because to me it didn't matter. To me, what mattered was I've got a client in front of me, I need to solve their problem. And money will come, money will flow. If you do a good job, it will come. And when I won my Rookie of the Year award for the first year of and being in business, I remember saying that on stage when people said, Oh, what's your success? What's your secret to success? You just came into the industry and you absolutely blown the socks off. You know, we never had such a successful mortgage advisor here. I was like, Well, to me, I don't have a secret recipe. I was just focusing on people in front of me and I was listening to what people were saying, you know. And a lot of people I was dealing with were mums, run-down mums, stressed-out mums on the playgrounds, in the swimming pools, you know, talking to me about how the roof is leaking, or they need new windows, or they need a new car because they're pregnant and then, you know. And I was able to provide solution to their problems.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

Yes. Yeah, that's what you do best. Yep. So you are solving the problems. You're not worrying about the money flowing into you. No. Yeah. And so that's the whole thing. If you if we if we concentrate on not having enough money, the universe will just go, okay. You know, as you say, money will walk away.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

So do what you do best, which is run your business, look after your family, whatever it is you do, do that and the money will come back. It will come in.

unknown 38:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

So I say to my clients, you know, let's stop, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop focusing on money. We know that you have a budget, we know that you need to be doing this each month, but stop thinking about it and worrying about it. Do what you do best, which is your business, whatever it might be. And you'll find the money will come to you.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

I love that. Heather, you've got so much

Discipline, Age, And Keeping Going

SPEAKER_01 38:53

wisdom. I want to end this podcast on a fun note because I was fascinated with some of the things you achieved in life. You're like, I don't know where this is going, right? It's okay. But one thing you said to me years ago, you did uh lifting or yeah, I was a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding took up.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

I had a midlife crisis at 50, took up bodybuilding.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

That that requires a massive discipline. Yeah. Huge. Well, I had good coaches, you know, and I knew that I needed to lose weight. Um, and so I lost a lot of weight. But I I enjoyed it like you do when you go to the gym. But it was a huge discipline, the diet, everything that we did, but but I'm competitive, you know, I'm determined. No. And so, yeah, so and and that once again probably set set me up again to understanding myself and how I operate and and hence taking up powerlifting at 70. You know, crazy. But I love it.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

I look at you and I'm like, you do not look 70. And it always blows my mind when I think of how old you are.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Yeah. No, no, it's just well, it's a mindset, isn't it? Age is a number. Age is a number, and uh just get up and just keep going. You know, I've I've given up um powerlifting, but now thanks to Snap Fitness, I do high ROCs. Which is craziest. I have to look at myself sometimes and go, what are you doing, woman? But I love it. So, you know, it's my time out for me. Yeah. Not good at running, but anyway, that's okay. I'm not a good at running either. I don't know how people can run, but I you have to do it in high rocks. But that's okay. Yeah. You know, that's all right. It's my body just taking time out from work. And and so that's yeah, it's just what I do.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

You blow my mind. What's next for Heather?

SPEAKER_00 40:36

What's in the next I don't know, I'm not sure. I'm a little bit like you. I love speaking, I love training. I'm not going to stop, for sure. Um you know, I love what I do. So people have said to me, When are you going to retire? And I'm going, why? I've got nothing to retire from. Yeah. What am I going to retire from? Yeah. You know, if I don't want to work for the day, I don't work for the day. So that's fine. Why retire? Yeah. So I'll just I'll just keep going, you know, until they put me in that box, I'll still be working. And it keeps your brain working, right? Yes. Keeps you alive, keeps you young. Yeah. Yeah. Great conversations with great people, as you know, you know, around around the place. I mean, I've got clients all round, I've got clients in Australia, and I just love working with them. So why give it up? I love it.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

I love it. Heather, thank you so much for coming today. You always bring so much energy. And I look at you and I'm like, I hope when I'm at your age, I've still got the same amount of energy as you do today. Because you're just so inspirational. And um, I really enjoyed knowing you over the years and seeing you do all sorts of fascinating things that just blow my socks off every time.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

But we've grown together, if you think about it. You know, we've we've grown into our businesses, we've grown up, if you like. Yeah. I don't know if I'll ever grow up, but anyway. I don't think we grow up. I've I think we've tried to grow up. But we've grown together over the years that we've known each other. And we've developed ourselves, we've moved from there to there to there, and we're finding our happy place. We're accepting who we are. We're accepting this is how our bodies and our brains work. We're accepting our energy. And so we'll just keep going because we love what we do.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

I love it. I love it. Now, for those listeners that are listening today, uh feel free to reach out to Heather. She works with businesswoman. Yes, businesswoman. Businesswoman. And we'll link up all your bios and LinkedIn and whatever people say these days.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Most of mine is on LinkedIn. I'm not a great fan of Facebook, I think. Uh, you know, Facebook will uh will delete you. Mind you, you can go into LinkedIn Prison as well, I've discovered. Uh-huh. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

So But I love your newsletters. So for those that are listening and you haven't signed up to have this newsletters, please do so because every time it pops into my, that's the one that always distracts me. And I go, oh, this is interesting. I'll I'll have a read. Because again, you put it's sort of the same, it's interesting, isn't it? Because sometimes it's always like the same information, but it hits differently. Yeah. It's those gems that I find in them going, oh, this is very relevant right now. I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna use this. And I and I use a lot of your phrases with my clients as well around the energies and managing their time, managing their energies, not time.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

And yeah, yeah. Time management's a myth. You'll never you'll never stop the clock. Yeah, it will just keep ticking, whatever you try and do. You know, the 1440 minutes will just keep ticking away. You won't stop it. But you know, your your your um energy is rechargeable, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Time is finite. Yeah. Time is finite. Heather, thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having me. I've loved it. Love being here with you. Let's go have some coffee. Thank you, darling. See you next time.